In abroad politics, ingratitude is risky, and harm goes deep into collective memory.
Civilization finds its expression not only in material and technological development. Its expression is besides social and spiritual improvement – moral and mental. The lofty moral sentiments, specified as gratitude and forgiveness, as well as selflessness in the community, are the consequence of its advanced civilizational development, or civilizationalization. However, they are uncommon in global relations, where emphasis is placed on the strength and interest of the state.
Because of the state's interest, abroad policy does not give anything freely for nothing, but always curious for something. The consequence of the business, not just the feelings, is gratitude erstwhile 1 country receives a certain benefit from another and makes a commitment to it. There is simply a moral debt and a relation of addiction between the talented and the donor. In order to get free of this debt and addiction, the state can cease to be grateful to others as shortly as possible, given the changed global configuration and the arrangement of forces, this will cease to be dangerous to him. However, an act of ingratitude is always risky for you. For in the long word it may prove to be very costly for him to be ungrateful, for those political actors who gain the image of the ungrateful may receive a refusal erstwhile they ask for aid in the future and thus put themselves in danger.
Poland owes liberation to the russian Union from the German occupation, which was the biggest tragedy of the Polish nation in history. Scales of oppression that affected Poles during planet War II from Nazi Germany cannot be compared to the communist repression in the Polish People's Republic. The claim that Poles from the German business during the Second planet War passed after the war to the russian occupation, suggesting that they had akin features, bordering on absurdity and hard to explain logically beyond average amnesia. Under German occupation, Poles were despised, deported to extermination camps and exposed to death all day. During the times of the Polish People's Republic, the destroyed cities were rebuilt, fresh settlements and schools of the millennium were built, strong manufacture and modern agriculture were developed, the top works of Polish culture were reminded and Polish technological and method thought was activated.
In the fighting in Poland, in its fresh borders established by the Allies, 600 1000 Red Army soldiers were killed. During fierce fighting, the Red Army was assisted by the I and II Army of the Polish Army. Polish soldiers did not fight for communism, nor even for socialism, but as we read in the 1957 appeal for “the life and freedom of the nation, for the dignity and honor of our homeland – Poland”. On these values were raised a generation surviving in those days. Poles then remembered earlier oppressions from the russian side. specified cognition was inactive passed on, if not in schools, in families. But they could look to the future, show appreciation, and appreciate what they received. many statues of gratitude were presented, representing the brotherhood of the weapons of the Polish and russian soldiers in the fight against Fascism and German expansion. They were part of a wider Polish-Russian reconciliation programme. This was besides served by books and films, any very popular. It was a policy of the Polish People's Republic and the USSR, resembling the later right initiative of General Charles de Gaulle in relation to Germany. As a general rule, it should be assumed that relations between countries should be friendly, especially erstwhile nothing divides them beyond historical events. There were no more reasons for hostility between Poland and Russia, or alternatively there was a reason for gratitude, as without the triumph of the USSR over Germany the destiny of Poles would have been different, most likely much more tragic.
It is understandable that Poland, with its long past of fighting for independence, wanted to be a full independent state. The changes that took place in Europe in 1989, to which the Polish Solidarity movement and the dissolution of the russian Union in 1991 contributed to a large extent, gave specified an opportunity. The gratitude that the Polish People's Republic had in relation to the USSR active a moral debt associated with the death of 600 1000 russian soldiers, who had fallen by liberating its territory, and at the same time with the relation of political dependence for this gift of liberation and designation of the regional hegemony of the russian Union. Poland decided to free itself from this addiction. The dependency situation was replaced by a partnership relation between countries, as expressed in the signed on 22 May 1992. A treaty between the Republic of Poland and the Russian Federation on relationship and good neighbourly cooperation. Under this Treaty, the parties declared that they would make their relations "in a spirit of friendship, good neighbourly partnership, equality, trust and common respect".
However, there was a noise. The russian Union's triumph in the large Patriotic War as defined by the defence of the USSR against German aggression in 1941, which continued until the conquest of Berlin and the triumph in German fascism in 1945. The fact of the engagement of crucial forces of the Polish Army, in the number of about 350 thousand, fighting on the russian side in this immense military act, helped to heal erstwhile wounds in relations between countries and to build friendly relations, which was systematically implemented in the Polish People's Republic. In connection with the art of diplomacy, relations between countries must always be improved, seeking common interests and values in situations of differences. The denial of specified an knowing of diplomacy is the rhetoric of hostility.
However, this diplomatic play was seemingly forgotten in the 3rd Republic of Poland, erstwhile fresh democratic elites came to power. utilizing the imaginary slogan of “decommunization” – due to the fact that there was never a communism in Poland, and at most there was socialism in his, after 1956, a comparatively mild Polish version – the monuments of the brotherhood of arms began to be torn down, despite the fact that, as investigation has shown, the Polish public did not initially request it. The top strength of the process of destroying the memory of a common past occurred erstwhile the Law and Justice organization (PiS) made the removal of gratitude monuments 1 of the main points of its program. In 2014, a list of over 300 monuments was created to be removed, and the Institute of National Memory (IPN) took over the removal of them. In many cases, the Russian Embassy protested these acts of blurring common memory.
Public people who make decisions frequently do not realize that the time they live in is just a tiny part of history. What may seem apparent today, or the legitimacy of destroying gratitude monuments for ideological reasons, may prove to be a large mistake in the future, if the consequence is the demolition of friendships between Russians and Poles built for many years. It is actual that, under the appearance of gratitude, many of the memorials put up hid a circumstantial symbolism: Poland's dependence on the russian Union. Today, however, this dependence is no longer present, and the sacrifice of soldier blood remains unchanged. Whosoever of this blood sacrifice, which is the highest sacrifice, underestimates, is ungrateful.
Ungratefulness in abroad politics is risky, and the injury resulting from ungratefulness enters deep into collective memory. It spoils relations between nations and fills them with common hostility. It may turn out that in the face of inactive surviving and now increasing nationalisms in Europe, Germany and Ukraine and the ever-changing global situation, Poland will request aid from Russia in the future. But can Russian aid be counted upon with specified a far-reaching deterioration in relations, despite the signing of the Treaty on Friendship?
To show gratitude, there is small to do but respect for values that are crucial to another nation – in the case of Russians, this value is the memory of soldier heroism during the Patriotic War. We should not forget the crimes of the Stalinist period and another injuries suffered by the USSR by Poles, but we should besides remember the benefits obtained and be grateful for them, so that, in accordance with the letter of the signed Treaty, we can form relations with Russia in the spirit of good neighbourly partnership, equality, trust and common respect, which can interest in the future.
Prof. W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz
Prof. Włodzimierz Julian Korab-Karpowicz, Polish philosopher and political thinker. After his philosophical studies in Poland and the United States and his doctorate at Oxford University, he taught at many universities on 3 continents. He deals with the explanation of global relations. He is the author of Social Harmony and another books translated into respective languages.
Think Poland, No. 17-18 (27.04-4.05.2025)
